Page 41 of The Wild Zone

“Because I haven’t told you everything that happened last night.” I reached into my pocket and took out the ring. It glistened in my palm, the sapphires catching the light and showing off their brilliance.

The others gathered around me and gawked as I explained how Grant and I had found it.

“It was just lying in a ditch?” Zuri asked.

“It was actually more like a fissure,” I said. “Like the ground had split open. Grant reached inside and pulled it out.” I glanced at Benny. “When you said you wondered what the monster might have wanted from Grant…maybe this was it.”

He scratched his head. “That takes us back to Zuri’s earlier point. What would a monster want with riches?”

“Maybe it hoards them!” Harper said. “Like a dragon.” He gasped and grabbed my arm. “Like Smaug!”

I wrinkled my forehead. “Who?”

“The dragon from The Lord of the Rings,” Zuri said. She looked at Harper with an approving smile. “You’re a Ringer, huh?”

He blushed. “I mean, I’ve seen the movies a few times…every year since I was six.” He cleared his throat. “Also, Smaug is technically from The Hobbit. Although he does get a brief mention in—”

“Can we please focus?” I said.

“Right. Sorry.” Harper shook his head. “So Smaug could sense magic from this superpowerful ring called the One Ring. Maybe what you’re holding is magic too.”

The rest of us joined Harper’s staring contest with the ring in my palm.

“What happens when you put it on?” Benny whispered reverently.

“I’ve never tried,” I admitted. “I’ve just been carrying it.”

A slow smile spread across Harper’s face. “I’ll bet it turns you invisible like Frodo Baggins. And to save the world, you have to journey to Mordor and drop the ring”—he gasped and pointed at the sink full of lava—“in Mount Doom!”

Zuri and Benny gaped at the sink, entranced by Harper’s story.

Meanwhile, my stomach twisted at almost every word. “I don’t want any of that. I just want to save my…” Friend? Family? Both. “I just want this nightmare to end. So if that’s what it takes…” I tossed the ring toward the sink.

“NO!!!” Zuri, Benny, and Harper all shouted.

Zuri caught the ring right before it reached the sink. Those archer reflexes were pretty impressive.

“Are these lava fumes getting to your brain?” She shoved the ring back into my hand. “You don’t just throw something like this away!”

I pointed at Harper. “But he said!”

Harper held up his hands defensively. “Hey, it was a theory built on hopes and dreams. This ring might do something totally different.”

I held it out to him. “Then here.”

He smiled kindly. “It wasn’t meant for me. Also, if it’s cursed, no thank you.”

“It wasn’t meant for me, either.” I offered it to Zuri.

“Nooo.” She shied away. “I’ve got enough going on.”

When I turned toward Benny, he shook his head. “Grant gave it to you for a reason, Katie.”

I frowned. “Yeah, because I was standing beside him, not because I’m Frodo Booger.”

Harper cleared his throat. “Frodo Baggins. And you should put the ring on. See what happens.”

I marveled at him. “You just said it might be cursed! And now you want to ‘see what happens’? How very Oppenheimer of you. What if I explode?”